Stars Lose Whitney to Lower Body Injury

Stars Lose Whitney to Lower Body InjuryStars forward Ray Whitney left the game early in the first period with a lower body injury and did not return.

Stars forward Ray Whitney left the game early in the first period with a lower body injury and did not return.

Whitney appeared to be injured when he went down awkwardly in the neutral zone after taking a hit from Carolina defenseman Brett Bellemore on the first shift of the game. Whitney took another shift a few minutes later and then left the game.

Whitney is listed as day to day.

Penalty kill woes

Carolina scored on its first two power play chances of the game Thursday to extend their lead from 1-0 to 3-0. Stars coach Lindy Ruff discussed the penalty kill after the game.

“Lack of aggression, we sat inside too much. We gave them room, gave them some time,” Ruff said. “You do that when you’re tired out there. I thought we did that when we were fresh. I think the one shot, there was no chance Lehts (goaltender Kari Lehtonen) could see it. The other one was pretty good one-timer from up top.”

The Stars have given up a power play goal in 10 of the last 15 games, and are 39-51 (76.5 percent) on the penalty kill during that stretch.

Thomas gets time in net

Stars goaltender Tim Thomas was back in manning the net for the first time since his start against Philadelphia on March 20. Thomas took over for Kari Lehtonen eight minutes into the second period with the Stars down 3-0 and stopped 15 of 16 shots in 28:51 of playing time.

““I thought Tim played real well,” said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. “He made I’d say six, seven real good saves for us and gave us a chance.”

Notes

*For the fifth time this season the Stars were unable to turn a three-game winning streak into a four-game winning streak.

*Carolina ran its points streak to five games (3-0-2).

*The Stars are 10-7-1 since the Olympic break.

*The Stars were 0-3 on the power play and 3-5 on the penalty kill.

*Carolina is now 9-31 (29.0 percent) on the power play and 22-23 (95.6 percent) on the penalty kill over the last nine games.

*The Stars outshot the Hurricanes 34-32. Dustin Jeffrey led the Stars with six shots on goal.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.